


i want admission to your party (it's the best in town)

by tinyphrases



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-18
Updated: 2016-03-18
Packaged: 2018-05-26 23:02:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6259408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinyphrases/pseuds/tinyphrases
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn’s eyes open and he smiles brightly. “Let’s keep fighting, then.”</p><p>The one where the Resistance celebrates life after battle, after loss.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i want admission to your party (it's the best in town)

**Author's Note:**

> wip title was ‘high on legal dank space marihuana’, and was gonna be a story of wild resistance parties. instead, we got this. all based on conversations with rhea on the topics of marihuana found in space by nasa, and the weed lesbian rey meme. (also a very poor attempt at ominous narration?) (be safe when you do smoke weed, okay? i feel like it’s my responsibility to put that out there) (wtf is this)

There’s that saying, and no one is quite sure where it came from, but it goes a little something like: _“sometimes, you gotta work a little, so you can ball a lot.”_

Well, the part about ‘work a little’ doesn’t apply, at all. The Resistance doesn’t work a little; they work _a lot_ so that when they’re done working, they deserve to ball _a lot_ as well.

Most of the time, there’s little freedom to actually go wild. They have to inspect the ships to make sure they’re ready for yet another attack, which is just _yawn_ inducing and not at all fun. It’s so little fun, in fact, that they occasionally have to organise their own sneaky times of party when the General doesn’t allow any.

This time, there seems to be a change in air. And it’s a very welcome one indeed.

Jess is just done with cleaning up the mess in her bunk – a _much_ dreaded task – when she bumps into Rey on her way to the mess hall. Rey, with her bright smile and excited bouncing that moved her entire body, looks so cute that Jess is pulled out of her slump immediately. “Hey, cutie,” Rey greets with a grin, planting a kiss on her girlfriend’s cheek.

Safe to say, Jess is still figuring out how to be fine with all this. “Hey, you, what’s got you so happy?” she asks casually, stepping in to wrap an arm around Rey’s slender frame. It’s easy because she’s shorter, and everyone always says it’s cute, and Jess _hates_ being called cute by anyone other than Rey. She punched Poe for it, at least once.

“I talked to the General today, and Luke was there too, and they decided to give everyone a day off tomorrow!” Rey says cheerfully, wrapping her own arm around Jess as they make their way to the mess together. There’s already a buzzing around them when they enter, so they’re not the first ones to hear, and Rey simply does not understand how anyone knows when she was the only one who witnessed the conversation.

It’s cute that she doesn’t understand, really, and Jess will be the first to admit to that. “That’s absolutely perfect! You know, Poe has been dying to take you and Finn back home, to Yavin 4. His dad has the cutest place there and we could, you know, get around to doing some of the things we were meaning to do.”

Rey gives Jess a funny look as they take a seat, having recognised none of the people they usually sit with. “What have we been meaning to do?” she asks, chuckling briefly to herself in anticipation of what she says next: “I’d say we have been ticking things off our list quite well.”

The thing is that Jess, who is familiar with relationships and sex, is the one who gets flustered way more easily than Rey, who is simple and regards things as they are, not as they are in their greater context. Naturally, Jess is the one to flush and burrow her face into her girlfriend’s shoulder. “You- Damn you! You are absolutely, insufferably honest, Rey. Give a girl heads up!”

Rey just grins. “What’s the fun in that?”

They focus on eating for the time being, right up until a few of the pilots join them, including Poe who looks positively excited with the news himself, and gives Rey the same offer as Jess. “You’ll love it! I’ve been meaning to take Finn to meet my dad, and on Yavin 4 there’s space for us to do the things that the Resistance is a big fan of but can’t do too often.”

Jess rolls her eyes at him. “We’re not _that_ big of a fan of weed, Dameron. You just lure us all into smoking with you when you and Snap misuse the purpose of your supply runs.”

“Did I hear my name and _smoking_ in one sentence?” Snap says happily as he takes a seat, right between Rey and Jess, which earns him an elbow in the ribs from Jess’ side. “I was _just_ thinking we could throw a party. Enjoy our victory for once.” Snap makes it sound like he’s a party animal, but really. He’s not. At all.

So, the idea of going to Yavin 4 gets pushed aside quickly. The Resistance expects a party to happen, so Snap and Iolo go about looking for whatever bottles are stashed away, while Poe promises to get them some of the good stuff for smoking. Before anything, though, Jess stops him when he’s leaving the mess with Finn. “Save some for me, I want to get baking,” she says easily, and Poe just grins at that. Jess’ cake is famous in the entire Resistance, _no matter what it contains_.

“You got it, Testor,” he says easily, giving her a cheesy thumbs up. Jess rolls her eyes because fuck, Dameron is _so_ lame.

She goes back to join Rey for the rest of their meal, chatting away about the party, and Rey looks a little too excited throughout. Obviously, she’s never had any weed, and she’s not witnessed a proper Resistance party either. Jess explained previously that parties where there is a great presence of authority figures, they are all on their best behaviour. Sure, not everyone. Karé and Iolo go about coercing everyone into drinking at least a little, and most of the pilots fall for it, every single time.

“What actually happens when you smoke?” Rey asks as they are leaving the mess to go tinker with the spare X-Wings that could use some work. Jess would be lying if she ever said that Rey talking mechanics didn’t make her fall in love just a little more.

“Depends on the person, but for me it usually does the same as what alcohol does,” Jess replies, going to braid her long hair, twisting the strands until it’s as long and tight as she wants it. Rey is always in awe of how she does her hair without even thinking about it, even if she feels little desire to change up her own hairstyle. It feels comfy, feels natural. Besides, makes it easy for people to recognise her on the base.

“I’ve never actually seen you drunk, Jess, what scandalous things do you do under the influence of alcohol that I am not allowed to see?” Rey teases, reaching for a wrench from the toolbox and handing it to Jess.

“I just get extremely clingy when I drink, clingy and I also talk very loudly,” Jess says, groaning slightly when Rey giggles. “It’s really not funny! Before you, I’d cling to all these random people, and now I don’t want to be clinging to random people. I wanna cling to you!”

“And you say that when you smoke you’re the same?”

Jess nods, climbing up the ladder so that she can take a look in closer detail. “Basically. Except for the yelling. I go all mellow and soft, and Poe always teases me about it when he’s high as well. Some people just don’t change at all, you see?”

“I wonder what I become when I’m high,” Rey muses, leaning against the ship casually and looking across the base. “And I wonder what a party looks like around here. A proper one.”

“It’s a hell lot of fun, I promise you,” Jess says, her voice muffled by the ship, but Rey can hear her perfectly clear nonetheless.

[…]

Somewhere across the base, in one of the common areas that the Resistance has for downtime, Snap and Iolo run into Karé and General Organa, who are discussing something that vaguely sounds like a diversion from the night’s antics. They usually leave that to Karé anyway – she’s the better liar – but General Organa seems sceptic about having all her pilots unavailable in case of a possible attack.

“Excuse me, General, but we have all of that under control,” Snap interferes, since they’re close by anyway, and Karé shoots him a brief glare. As opposed to her, Snap is a pretty bad liar, so whenever he opens his mouth, she feels the need to interfere. “Yes, we do, sir,” Karé adds quickly, taking one of the boxes from Snap. “Don’t you have something else to do? A supply run with Dameron, before tonight?”

“Oh. Yeah. Definitely.” Snap just nods mutely and gives her a thumbs up. “But seriously, General, under control.”

Karé rolls her eyes and promises herself to kick his ass.

[…]

FADE IN:

EXT. MESS

An overview of the scene is a good beginning.

The mess has been cleared from all the tables, or at least most of them, and there’s space to relax and space to dance. Snap has been crowned the unofficial DJ, and he takes the job very seriously, although Karé is guiding his drunk ass. (Partly, out of promise to his wife, who didn’t feel like joining the party.) (Mostly, because Snap has pretty shitty taste in space bands, and Karé is the _official_ DJ of the Resistance.)

Not too far from them, leaning casually against the wall, are some of the younger pilots, who are obviously less experienced, but still know how to handle the sensation. There’s not a _lot_ going in circulation, but they all get a taste of Jess’ brownies, and they are clearly a favourite. Such a favourite, that the young pilots start taking bets on what adult will succumb and eat a second brownie first. There will be one. There is _always_ one.

The bets are spread out, but most guess that Finn will be the one. Because he looks at Poe like the sun shines out of Poe’s ass, while normally the sun is in Poe’s eyes, and Finn likes a good feeling. He likes the feeling of lowered inhibitions, too, so the small group of pilots decides to mostly place their bets on Finn.

For some reason, no one suspects Rey, but that’s because Rey is nowhere in the mess, and neither is Jess, and that’s for entirely different reasons than one might assume.

Anyway, Finn and Poe are engaged in a clumsy attempt at dancing. It could be because of the brownies, because Finn has had one and he’s laughing more than he’s dancing, and Poe is making googly eyes at him like he always is. There’s something tranquil about them, something that can’t be said of everyone, because some people are drinking and it has quite frankly the opposite effect on them. They’re full of bubbling excitement and relief and they celebrate life.

The celebration is not as evident in Finn and Poe, but one is easily fooled by the image. See, the tranquillity of their attempts at dancing, their shared laughter, is a party of its own right. They may not seem like it, but they’re happy with every passing second, that they’re alive still.

“This is good, I like this,” Finn comments quietly, when he has his arms wrapped around Poe’s shoulders, and they’re kind of awkwardly swaying back and forth to a song that is not entirely meant for slow dancing.

Poe laughs, breathy and light and a little lazy. “Yeah? I like it too. I like it a lot.”

“Do we get to do this a lot?” Finn asks softly, his eyes closed as he hums quietly. Poe opens his just to look at the peace on his expression. Finn was easily fidgety, worried about something, so he was always desperately clinging onto feelings like this.

“Afraid not, buddy. That’s the joy in it. That’s- if every day is a party, we stop appreciating it. We have so much to fight for, and when we win the fight, we celebrate.”

Finn’s eyes open and he smiles brightly. “Let’s keep fighting, then.”

FADE OUT

[…]

Somewhere else on D’Qar, there’s a different setting, though the sentiment is similar.

There are reasons why Rey barely wears her hair down. Part of it, is habit, and she doesn’t pretend that it’s not that, because Rey doesn’t pretend, in general. She has only pretended once, and that didn’t last long enough, because Jess liked her back, and she was tired of having to play it coy.

Part of it, however, is the discomfort that it gives her. Wearing her hair down from the three buns is letting her guard down. Is showing a vulnerability that she’s not ready to expose to the world, and perhaps one day, she will be ready, when the war is over and when the nightmares have stopped haunting her.

She doesn’t question the pacing. She allows time to wash over her, and she allows _love_ and _friendship_ and _family_ to be her healing balm, on the scars left by the sand.

Jess looks at her like she has the universe tattooed on her skin. Rey thinks it’s the weed, but Jess knows that she always looks at Rey like this. Her fingers reach out, toying with the lowest bun of three.

They’re curled up underneath what has become Rey’s favourite tree, even though the deep red blossoms have long since fallen down. It overlooks the waterside, another one of Rey’s place on the planet, and it seemed like they just agreed to come here, instead of staying in the mess for long.

“Can I let them down, comb through your hair?” Jess asks, seemingly absentminded, but she purposefully didn’t have a brownie, nor did she smoke. Rey did, and she’s tranquil and small, bigger than Jess but the way they’re curled together, you’d never guess that.

Rey doesn’t open her eyes to answer, she just sighs softly and nods. She finds, that in the end, letting go of things is easier than she thinks.

“We’re alive, have you ever considered that?” Rey hums quietly when Jess starts carefully unwinding the buns, allowing the dark mass of hair to spread freely.

Rey feels the chair tickle her cheek, but she finds that for the first time, she doesn’t care.

Jess looks up at the stars, before her eyes land on the girl against her, and she smiles because she considers it all the time. After every battle, every mission, when she sees this young girl with the universe tattooed on her skin, she remembers she’s alive.

That there’s something else worth fighting for.

[…]

The Resistance doesn’t party often. But when it does, it is done _well._

There’s just one rule: there’s no talking about whatever happened the night before.

Obviously, there is _one_ thing that everyone forgot to mention to the new kids. So no one hears the end of it, and it’s pretty embarrassing, and Rey and Finn apologise probably one too many times for it.

But well, such is life. And Force knows when the next time will be that they will get to do that.

**Author's Note:**

> title from admission to your party, by smallpools. an a+ song, if i say so myself.


End file.
